1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a print system, a method for counting the number of sheets printed, and a program for counting the number of sheets printed. More particularly, the invention relates to an image forming apparatus provided with a function to calculate a charge based on the number of sheets printed, a print system including the image forming apparatus, a method for counting the number of sheets printed executed by the image forming apparatus, and a program for counting the number of sheets printed executed by the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a plurality of image forming apparatuses such as printers are occasionally connected to a network. When a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) connected to the network transmits print data to an image forming apparatus, the print data is printed on the image forming apparatus. A technique is being developed such that when the image forming apparatus receiving the print data cannot print the print data for reasons including failure, another image forming apparatus prints the print data
Also, a charge is made for printing on some image forming apparatuses, which count the number of paper sheets printed which serves as the basis on which the charge is calculated. These image forming apparatuses occasionally employ a different unit charge, which is a price for printing on a single sheet. Even a single image forming apparatus may employ different unit charges depending on the number of sheets printed; for example, under the charging system where the unit charge becomes lower as the number of sheets printed increases, the unit charge varies depending on the number of sheets printed.
When the image forming apparatus receiving the print data from the PC cannot print the print data for reasons including failure and another image forming apparatus prints the print data instead, then the image forming apparatus that actually prints the print data may have a higher unit charge than that of the image forming apparatus designated by the user for the printing. In this case, if a charge is calculated on the actually printing image forming apparatus, the user may be charged a higher amount of money than the user expected.
Also when the image forming apparatus designated by the user for the printing cannot print the print data for reasons including failure and another image forming apparatus prints the print data instead, then there is no increase in the number of sheets printed on the image forming apparatus designated by the user. If the image forming apparatus designated by the user is under the charging system where the unit charge decreases as the number of sheets printed increases, there is no decrease in the unit charge on the designated apparatus because the number of sheets printed does not increase there even though having been designated by the user for the printing.